Safety
by DelMarch
Summary: When Ikkaku the fighting man meets Yumichika the runaway boy... A musing on one way the Unlikely Duo may have come to be. No pairing, rated T for child abuse themes and a bit of violence.
1. Prologue : The rumors

A/N:

- English isn't my mother tongue. I apologize for any mistake I may have made.

- I don't have a beta reader - if anyone feels like volunteering...

- This is my first fic on this site. Please be nice, but don't be shy :-)

- I love the Ikkaku/Yumichika pair. Couple, not couple? I don't see the manga/anime as clearly stating either. I personally like them better as friends, but not just any kind of friends. The inspiration for this particular fic came from parallels I have seen made between Zaraki/Yachiru and Ikkaku/Yumichika. It might be a bit of a stretch, but I don't think it's actually all the way OOC.

- Rated T for sensitive themes.

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Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach, Tite Kubo does.

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Prologue: The Rumors

Ikkaku had heard them all, of course, all the rumors about how he and Yumichika had met, and what kind of relationship they had. Some were hilarious, some were ludicrous, some were plausible, some were offensive, but none of them were true, which he considered quite an achievement in itself, since the truth was literally staring them in the face (at least the face of those shinigami who belonged, or had at one time belonged, to the 11th Division).

Not that Ikkaku cared, of course. He'd heard it all many times over, long before he and Yumichika had joined the Gotei 13, it was never anything completely new, so it had stopped bothering him a very long time ago. Even when some particularly annoying new rumor would reach his ears and manage to irritate him, all it would take to calm him down was one look at Yumichika and his quiet smile, and the anger would evaporate on the spot - that smile had always worked miracles on Ikkaku, and he suspected that it always would. Even better were those rumours that actually made Yumichika laugh - not his ironic hard laugh, but the soft one, the real one : as far as Ikkaku was concerned, anything that made Yumichika laugh like that was a good thing, even if it was a rumour that presented him, Ikkaku, in a less than favourable light. He loved the kid's laugh that much.

The kid. Ikkaku would shake his head in wonder every time he caught himself thinking of Yumichika in those terms. Come on, Yumichika hadn't been a kid for many, many years now! Ikkaku wasn't quite sure he could call him "an adult" either (he often didn't look or act the part, for one), but he definitely was no kid anymore. He was... Well, to be frank, Ikkaku didn't really know what Yumichika was, exactly. Yumichika was Yumichika, he was his very own thing, like he had always been. Even back as a kid, he had never squarely fallen into any neat category, and this annoying tendency of his had only increased as he got older - so much so that he almost seemed to be doing it on purpose sometimes.

But even if Ikkaku didn't quite know what Yumichika _was_, he did know a few things that Yumichika most definitely _wasn't_. At the top of the list was "his lover". Those were the rumours that irritated Ikkaku the most, though he knew nobody would ever understand why, because nobody understood what sex meant - and didn't mean - to Yumichika. If people knew, many would be horrified by those rumours... But Yumichika didn't care and didn't feel like enlightening anyone, and Ikkaku was taking his lead from him. Let people think whatever they wanted, what did it matter in the end anyway?

Still though... Ikkaku just couldn't figure out why people had never even approached the truth in all their wild suppositions. After all, they had all seen Zaraki Kenpachi with Yachiru, hadn't they? What did people think _their_ relationship was like?? Of course, Ikkaku could also remember that even in the case of the giant and the pink-haired little girl, some people had implied that maybe they were more than just father-figure/hero and daughter-cum-mascot. He had heard rumours about Zaraki kidnapping the little girl to raise her up as his future bride for example, and though those theories always made him roll under the table with laughter, they also, deep inside, hurt him pretty badly. Because if people could think _that_ of Zaraki and Yachiru, then most definitely, they could never hope to understand his relationship with Yumichika.


	2. Chapter 1 : Because of the rain

Chapter One : Because of the Rain

Ikkaku cursed mentally as he pushed open the door of the shack. OK, sure, he _was_ lucky to have found this misery of a hut just as the rain was starting to pour, but with just a bit _more_ luck, he could have made it to the village over the hill. Now he was condemned to spending a cold, lonely and hungry night when he could have had warm food, a bed and some company. Unlucky, really.

The light was so low due to the hour and the thunderstorm that he really couldn't see much once inside the shack. But then, it didn't seem like there was much to see anyway. The room was bare, except for what looked like a pile of rags in one corner. At least, though, it was reasonably dry, with only a half-dozen small leaks, mostly in the center of the roof. Stepping around the pool they were starting to form, he went straight for the pile of rags. He was cold, and if enough of his luck was still with him, he might find some sort of cover to roll himself into. As he was reaching for the pile, though, he clearly saw the rags move, and he withdrew his hand in disgust. If there were rats around here, then the rags would most probably be infested with fleas, and he wasn't desperate enough to spend the night with the little bloodsuckers. He was about to turn around, when he heard a sound coming from the pile of rags that definitely didn't have anything to do with rats - or at least, he'd never heard of rats coughing.

He reached for the rags again, grabbed a handful of material, and pulled. Something tried to pull back, but they were no match for Ikkaku, and off the cover went, revealing the unmistakable form of a rolled-up human child. Even in the dim light, Ikkaku could clearly make out a small pale face looking up at him, and a pair of skinny naked arms holding two thin naked legs. The kid had apparently been sleeping and had just been woken up by Ikkaku taking off his cover. They stared at each other for a second, before the kid got on his feet in a swift quick move and made for the door. Ikkaku's reflexes kicked in before he had time to think, and he grabbed the child around the waist as he was trying to run past him. The little body was thin and looked frail, but Ikkaku quickly discovered that it was also surprisingly strong, and that the child knew how to use his fists, feet and knees. Ikkaku yelled out as an elbow found his nose:

" Oi!! Heh, calm down, kid, I'm not gonna hurt ya! "

" Let me go!"

" Calm down! "

" Let! Me! GO! "

This wasn't working. The more Ikkaku tried to convince the kid to relax, the more he writhed and lashed out. Annoyed and getting thoroughly confused, Ikkaku did the only other thing that came to his mind: he banged his forehead into the kid's head, hard, effectively knocking him out. He had a vague impression that he had just failed some cosmic "Dealing with children – The basics" test, but he didn't care: he'd gotten the results he wanted, that was all that mattered. Ruefully, he dragged the child back to his corner, covered him again with the ragged cover, and sat down next to him.


	3. Chapter 2 : The man Ikkaku

A/N:

- My story has already been reviewed, favorite'd, and put on alert: what more could I ask for?! I'm in author's heaven, thanks guys :-) !

- Apologies to all Ikkaku/Yumichika pairing lovers: that's not where this story is headed (for rather obvious reasons too: Yumi is still a kid in this story, remember ;-) ? ) I do have sequels planned already, but even then, romance is not what's in store for our (or my, at least) favourite duo. In fact, that's kinda the point of it all... :-P

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Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach. I don't even own Yumi, as much as I'd love to...

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Chapter Two : The Man Ikkaku

Yumichika woke up with a headache and a very tender feeling on the side of his head. With a wince and a moan, he brought his hand up to check on it... and nearly jumped out of his skin when an unknown man's voice growled:

" Ah, you're finally awake. I was startin' to worry that I had accidentally killed ya or something. "

Panic rushing in, Yumichika quickly sat up - a bit too quickly maybe, as he immediately felt blood pounding in his ears while his vision blurred and his legs started to shake. He could feel himself on the verge of passing out again, but there was absolutely no way he would allow this to happen, his survival instincts strictly forbade it. He was in some unknown place with some strange man, he just _had_ to stay awake, he had to keep his wits about him and find a way to escape the situation as soon as possible and at the least possible cost.

Forcing himself to think through the haze that was fogging up his brain, he managed to remember bits and pieces of the last few days : the escape, the days roaming the countryside, the shack, the cold, the cover... He'd fallen asleep, and he'd woken up to find a man standing over him. He'd tried to run, but the man had grabbed him. They'd fought and... His memory went blank at this point. Judging from the throbbing pain in the side of his head, and what the man had just said, Yumichika guessed that the stranger had somehow managed to hit him hard enough to make him lose consciousness.

The man's voice cut through his thoughts again, harsh and low:

" Yo, kid, you okay? "

Confused by the strange question, Yumichika didn't answer. Instead, he focused his attention on the man sitting in front of him. Night had come and it was still raining heavily, so there was very little light to see anything by, but Yumichika could still make out the outline of a tall, bald and burly man wearing a short tunic that left his arms and legs bare. The man was playing with some kind of long stick - no wait, _was that a sword?!_ Yumichika's blood ran cold. Fighting an unarmed man was one thing, even fighting a man with a stick was still possible, but a man with a sword was another kind of problem altogether. He was going to have to be very, very careful...

" Heh, kid, did you hear me? Are you okay? "

Yumichika shuddered. Adrenaline fueling his thoughts, he quickly considered his options. He could try to run again. It hadn't worked the first time, but maybe he'd get lucky this time. But then, if the man gave chase, Yumichika would have very little chances of escaping him, especially in the state he was in right now, weakened by exhaustion and hunger, and dazed by the concussion to his head. No, trying to escape right now was not a good idea. Better try and mollify his captor. Pulling his legs under him, he settled himself into a kneeling position, before bowing slightly to the man and answering in his most respectful tone :

" Yes, sir, I'm, er, okay. "

The man snorted.

" Don't give me any of that 'sir' stuff, kid. Name's Ikkaku. Who you? "

Yumichika panicked. Reeling with fear, his mind focused on one thought: whatever he did, he must not give his real name to that man. There was no doubt he was being tracked down by his owners, so giving his name to anyone would be like sending a flare into the sky telling them where to find him. He needed to give a false name. A name... Anxiety flooding his brain, Yumichika struggled to extract a name, _any_ name, from his memory. Before he could so, though, the man shrugged and sniggered:

" No name, huh? Fine by me. Mind if I call you 'kid' then? "

Startled and confused, Yumichika automatically reverted to his old habits: he bowed again, and answered in a slightly shaky voice:

" Your wish is my desire, sir. "

The man groaned.

" I told you, the name is Ikkaku. And you sure talk funny, kid. Where you from? "

This was a question Yumichika could answer even less than the previous one. He was trying to come up with another lie, when the man shrugged again and said:

" Nah, never mind. If you don't have a name, I guess you don't come from nowhere either, huh? "

Thoroughly disorientated, Yumichika didn't even try to answer this time. The man sighed.

" Ah, forget it. You don't wanna talk, that's fine by me. I just wanna tell you one thing: there ain't no need to run away, OK? I'm not gonna hurt ya, so just lay back down and go back to sleep. Or stay up and listen to the rain. Or something. I don't care. Just don't run away in that rain, it'd be stupid, get that? "

Yumichika tensed. Every word the man said set him up a bit more on edge. "I'm not gonna hurt ya", "lay back down", "don't run away"... He'd heard those words all his life, and they had always been bad news... The only thing he didn't understand was why the man had not made his move yet. What was he waiting for? Was he maybe - Yumichika felt sick with panic at the thought - expecting more people to show up? Whatever the case, there was only a little time left before things turned bad. If only the man went to sleep, maybe Yumichika could escape? That was worth trying.

" Yes si-Ikkaku, I understand. I am not tired anymore though, so please, do take the cover, I do not need it anymore. "

Warmth, obscurity, and the repetitive sound of the rain hitting the roof: maybe those would be enough to send the man to sleep before anyone else showed up? Yumichika's hopes were shattered, though, when the man held up a hand and said:

" Nah, you keep it. You need it more than me, even if you ain't sleepy anymore. "

Forcing himself to speak through the disappointment, Yumichika tried to put as much fake gratitude as he could in his voice when he answered:

" I - thank you... Ikkaku. "

The man only grunted in response.

Wrapping himself in the cover - he _was_ very cold after all - , Yumichika stood up and leaned back against the wall. His tired legs trembled in protest against the lack of adequate rest, but he ignored them. He would not sit, that would be too dangerous, it would make it too easy to get drowsy. He was still exhausted even after resting for a few hours, but he couldn't allow himself to go back to sleep. He had to stay awake no matter what. He had to be ready to escape, if luck should have it that the man would fall asleep...


	4. Chapter 3 : Fallen Fighting Angel

A/N:

- Hakkaisensei: got my PM?

- Vanessa: I don't know what I did to deserve that review, but thank you for making me blush and grin so hard :-) I hope the rest of the story won't disappoint you.

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Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.

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Chapter Three: Fallen Fighting Angel

Ikkaku woke up when a ray of sunlight, passing through two disjointed planks in the wall, fell straight onto his eye. Yawning deeply, he stretched and pushed himself up on one hand while rubbing his eyes with the other. Blinking, he looked around. He could barely recognise the shack he'd entered in the night before. It looked completely different in the bright light of day. It also looked very... empty. With a jolt, Ikkaku realised he was alone in the hut. The child was gone. The blanket was still there, but when Ikkaku grabbed it, he realised that it was icy cold, which meant that the kid had left some time ago already. With a groan, Ikkaku figured that even though he had told him not to, the child had run away after all. Gah. Stupid kid. Ikkaku vaguely hoped that at least he'd waited until the rain had stopped...

Oh well! Rousing himself with a shrug, Ikkaku picked his sword up and went for the door. It wasn't like he could or should do anything for that kid anyway, so he had better forget him and get himself a nice breakfast in the village over the hill. Shivering slightly in the fresh morning air, he crossed the field, jumped the barrier, and hit the road again, walking briskly to warm himself up.

It was still very early, and apart from the birds, Ikkaku could only hear the wind in the trees and the river that ran a bit downhill from the road. Once he reached the top of the hill, though, new sounds reached his ears. Those ones were human made: several men were laughing and shouting, somewhere in a thicket of trees, not too far on the other side of the river. Ikkaku listened vaguely, until he heard some noises that made his ears perk: he recognised the distinct banging of wood on wood typical of fights. The realisation that the men were apparently engaged in some kind of battle made Ikkaku grin widely: a fight before breakfast would definitely be a great way to start the day.

Cutting straight through the fields, he headed towards the patch of trees were the sounds seemed to originate from. Sure enough, as he got closer, he started to distinguish the kind of jeering typical of people fighting or watching other people fight:

" Come on, come here! "

" You little... ! I'm gonna... "

" Ha ha! He sure showed ya up, heh? "

" Get him! "

Ikkaku had enough experience to understand that a group of men were fighting a single opponent. This was his personal favourite type of fights after all, so he'd heard those things many times before. Grinning even more at the idea of taking on either the pack of men or the man who would have beaten them all (after that fight was over, of course), he entered the thicket of woods, following the voices. Finally, in a little clearing, he found what he was searching for - and his blood ran cold, and then boiled, when he realised what was happening.

A group of men – tree cutters, from the look of them - were assembled in a circle, effectively creating a barrier around an arena where three huge men were fighting a single opponent. But that opponent was nothing more than a kid - from the look of him, the very child Ikkaku had met the night before. Dark hair, pale face, bare arms and legs : Ikkaku couldn't be sure of course, but it would have been a bit of a coincidence to find another kid roaming the same area at the same time. Not that it mattered anyway: what mattered was that this fight was simply not right. A group of grown men against a child, that was wrong, and Ikkaku was not going to stand by and let it happen.

He had to admit, though, that the kid was not doing so bad on his own. Of course he was mostly dodging shots and stopping those he couldn't avoid with a stick he was holding in his hands, but he was good at evading. He was very quick on his feet, very nimble, very agile. And when he had to stop a blow, he knew how to hold his stick with both his hands to lessen the impact. However, Ikkaku could also see huge bruises and even open cuts on his arms and legs where the blows he hadn't managed to stop or evade had hit, and he guessed that the kid would not last long at this game. Unfortunately, with the other men blocking his way out, he was trapped and couldn't escape.

With a roar, Ikkaku ran into the clearing and launched himself into the battle. To his disappointment, it turned out to be a quick affair: the lumbermen were not fighters after all, so most of them just ran away from him while those who dared facing him were easily discarded, especially since he was wielding a sword while they only had wooden clubs and their own fists. Feeling slightly grouchy at the lack of a challenge he'd encountered, Ikkaku looked around him, searching for the child, only to realise that he had run away once again. Frustrated, he called out:

" Hey! Kid! "

Nobody answered, but he distinctly heard the splashing of a pair of feet running through water or mud somewhere downhill. Trusting his instincts, he ran in the direction of the sound. He didn't bother to call again, knowing that this would only make the kid run harder for some reason. As soon as he cleared the trees, he saw his target: the child was barely a few hundreds paces away from him, running unsteadily through the fields, and falling on his hands and knees every few meters. Even as he ran after him, Ikkaku couldn't help but admire the kid's strength of will: he just kept on running, tripping and picking himself up again and again, even though his body was obviously on the verge of failing and his legs could barely carry him. He had the spirit of a fighter, that one.

Catching up with him was only a matter of seconds, and soon Ikkaku was wrapping his arms around the thin body of his little prey. The child tried to struggle for a while, but he was simply too exhausted to manage to do Ikkaku any harm this time. Eventually he gave up, his body becoming limp against Ikkaku's. His eyes were closed, he was desperately gasping for breath, his limbs were all shaking with exhaustion, he was losing blood from several gaping wounds, and Ikkaku could feel his heart pumping at an alarmingly high rate. As carefully as he could, he settled the thin body over his shoulder and carried him back uphill, towards the river. The kid didn't try to move even once, and Ikkaku wondered if he had lost consciousness. But at least he was alive, this he was sure of: he could hear him gasp for air, and he could feel the small ribcage pushing against the back of his shoulder with each breath.

When he finally reached the river, he carefully lowered the little broken body on the grass, making sure that no rock or stray piece of wood was pushing against the badly bruised skin. For the first time since he'd met him, Ikkaku had a chance to take a good look at the kid's face, and what he saw took his breath away.

That child had the most beautiful face Ikkaku had ever seen. It looked like it had been carved by an artist - a very, very talented artist. The high cheekbones, the nose, the mouth, the chin, the eyebrows, everything seemed to have been designed to perfection. The hair, black and sleek, was of course disheveled, dirty and messy, and yet it still somehow managed to look better than most people's hair on their best days. And when the kid opened his eyes, Ikkaku was greeted by two shocking, unnatural, huge purple eyes framed by thick, dark eyelashes. That child looked like some kind of fallen angel, and Ikkaku found it hard to remember to breathe while he was staring at him.

Him... A strong doubt crept into Ikkaku's mind. He had assumed that the kid was a boy for some reason, but now that he was looking at his face, he wasn't so sure anymore. Quite frankly, such beauty did not belong on a male face. And yet Ikkaku couldn't shake the feeling that his little fighting angel was indeed a boy... Bah, irrelevant! Shaking his head to help clear it, Ikkaku tried to refocus on the priorities at hand. Cute or ugly, male or female, this child was in very bad shape and needed his attention right now.

Looking into the purple eyes again, Ikkaku noticed that they were just staring into space. He waved a hand in front of the pretty face, but obtained no reaction whatsoever. The kid was slipping into a state of shock, which, given his condition, would not be a good thing at all. Ikkaku also noticed that his breathing, though it had slowed down, still didn't sound quite right: there was definitely a gurgle in there that shouldn't be here, which meant that one of the lungs had probably been hurt, which wasn't good news either.

Tearing off a piece of his own tunic, Ikkaku plunged it into the river and ran it, still dripping wet, along the kid's forehead. The whole little body shuddered violently and the kid took a sharp, deep breath, but the eyes remained worryingly unfocused. Ikkaku finished washing the pretty face, before trying to examine the rest of the body. There were large bloody stains blooming on the tunic, and Ikkaku started undoing the belt that held it together. Immediately, though, he felt the little body tense up and he heard the breathing accelerate and become much shallower. The purple eyes started roaming, still unfocused but clearly expressing a serious state of anxiety, while low, incoherent mutters escaped from the half-closed mouth. Perplexed, Ikkaku removed his hands from the belt and watched in amazement as the kid visibly relaxed. Troubled but not wanting to make things worse, Ikkaku decided to concentrate on the arms and legs first, hoping to rouse the kid back into full consciousness so he could obtain his cooperation for the rest of the examination.

Washing the exposed limbs revealed the full extent of several large open cuts, and Ikkaku soon found himself forced to tear off most of the upper part of his own tunic to improvise emergency bandages. He wrapped the thin limbs as gently as he could, but he could still hear soft moans of pain escaping the lips of the semi-unconscious child. Worse still, he noticed that the purple eyes were starting to roll back, while the eyelids were drooping. The child was losing consciousness, which wasn't desirable in his state, but there didn't seem to be anything Ikkaku could do. He tried talking to him and flicking his cheek, but nothing worked and the kid passed out under Ikkaku's helpless stare.

The good side of it was that Ikkaku was now able to open his tunic and treat his hidden wounds, but he was growing rapidly worried as he was listening to the breathing becoming slower and shallower, and he was looking at the skin taking on a very unhealthy grey tinge. Once he was done tending to the worst of the injuries, Ikkaku quickly placed the kid back onto his shoulder and started walking as fast as he could towards the village down the hill.


	5. Chapter 4 : Can't run away

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.

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Chapter Four: Can't run away

Yumichika didn't want to wake up. He was feeling so good, he wanted this moment to last forever, he wanted the warmth, and the light, and the softness, and the silence to last forever. But his brain had other ideas, and slowly but surely, he found himself waking up to the world around him and to the harsh reality of his own body.

The first thing he noticed was that it hurt to move. His arms hurt, his legs hurt, his chest hurt, his back hurt, even his head hurt when he tried moving it around to take in his surroundings. Wincing as pain shot throughout his body, he slowly pushed himself up into a sitting position, and after taking a minute or two to catch his breath (he vaguely noticed that breathing that heavily hurt too, but he didn't really care anymore by then), he looked around him again.

He was alone in a small and sparingly furnished bedroom. He was sitting on the only bed in the room, though a rolled-up futon in a corner told him that he was apparently sharing the room with someone else. This realisation sent familiar shards of panic ricocheting through his mind, but he forced himself to ignore them as they definitely weren't helping him think rationally.

First things first, he had to determine where he was and under what conditions. He wasn't back at the "orphanage", this he knew for sure, but he could very well be in another similar institution, which would be just as bad. The idea that he'd escaped one hell only to be placed into another filled him with helpless rage and he had to fight back bitter tears of anger and disappointment.

Biting hard on his lower lip to stop himself from crying or whimpering, he slid off the bed and tried to stand up, but the insane pain that shot through his right leg as he shifted his weight on it forced a yell out of him and sent him crashing to the floor, leaving him sweating and panting as he tried to regain control over his body even through the haze of pain and nausea that was overwhelming him.

He was still lying on the floor, vaguely wondering how he was ever going to manage to get up again, when he heard heavy steps approaching in the corridor outside the room. Panicking again, he turned his head towards the door in time to see it open. A man that looked vaguely familiar entered, carrying a sword in one hand and a cloth bag in the other. Yumichika heard him yelp and swear, before the sword and the bag hit the floor and the man rushed to his side. Yumichika closed his eyes and clenched his teeth, waiting for the first blow to land, and swearing to himself that no matter what happened, he wouldn't scream and he wouldn't cry.

He wasn't prepared for what did happen, though, and he almost cried out in surprise when the man carefully slid his arms under Yumichika's shoulders and knees, pulled him off the floor, and gently deposited him back on the bed, pulling the covers over him again. Still disbelieving, still expecting the blows to start showering any time now, and with the sound of blood pounding in his ears, Yumichika kept his eyes tightly shut and his jaws clenched, steeling himself up for what he _knew_ must happen sooner or later.

This time he did whimper when, instead of the blow he was expecting, a cool wetness settled on his forehead, and he couldn't help but open his eyes to try and understand what was going on. The man had already left his side to go and close the door and pick the sword and bag off the floor. He then turned back to the bed, laying the sword at the foot of it and plopping the bag on the floor next to it. He rummaged into the bag for a few moments, finally pulling out a loaf of bread which he broke in two halves. He bit into one, while handing the other over to Yumichika:

" Hungry, kid? "

Yumichika was about to say no, when his stomach betrayed him and gave a loud rumble. Sheepishly, he sat up, catching the wet cloth as it fell from his head, and placing it back next to the bowl of water on the little table by the side of the bed. Then he accepted the piece of bread the man was holding his way and took a nibble out of it, which immediately made him realise just how very hungry he was and led him to chomp feverishly on the bread, devouring it so fast that he barely had time to register that he was indeed eating it. His survival instincts were screaming somewhere in the back of his head that accepting gifts from strangers was a bad idea, but he rationalised that there was very little he could do for himself anyway in his weakened state, and that as such getting stronger was the right way to go - and that included getting some badly needed food into his belly.

When Yumichika looked at the man again, he saw that he was smirking and that he was already holding a second loaf of bread in his free hand. All pride gone, Yumichika wordlessly accepted the second round of food, and finished it just as fast as he had the first. All the while, he could feel the mocking eyes of the man on him, and he couldn't help but wonder what kind of price he was going to be asked to pay for this favour. When he was done eating, he lay back down and closed his eyes, trying not to think about what the man might say or do next. As such, the man's next question surprised him:

" Remember me, kid? "

Yumichika opened his eyes again and stared at the bald man. He did look vaguely familiar, he had met him before, he was sure of that. But his memory was hazy and he couldn't quite place him. He frowned in concentration, and a name swam to the forefront of his consciousness.

" Ik... Ikkaku? "

The man grinned and Yumichika inwardly sighed with relief, before tensing up again at the man's next question.

" And you? Still don't have a name? "

_Don't give him your name, don't give him your name, don't give him your name!_ The man shrugged.

" As I said, fine by me, you'll just be 'kid', OK? "

Yumichika nodded hesitantly.

" So now, _kid_," - Yumichika noticed the sarcasm in the man's tone and shuddered - , " tell me one thing: can I trust you not to run away before you're in a reasonable shape, or will I have to tie you to the bed or something? "

Yumichika felt his heart miss a beat, and a frozen sweat cover his whole body. He swallowed and tried to stop himself from shivering, all the while holding the man's gaze, but his head started swimming and he saw the man's face slid in and out of focus. He heard the man swear, and he felt the bed move as the man sat down next to him, before a heavy hand grabbed his shoulder and shook him lightly.

" Hey kid, I was kidding! I'm not really gonna tie you to the bed or anything like that! So calm down, all right? "

Yumichika tried to nod, but it was really all he could do to stop himself from passing out, so instead he concentrated on taking slow, deep breaths in an attempt to make the nausea go away. He heard the man swear again, and he vaguely saw him reach for the wet cloth - a splashing sound of moving water, and the wet coolness was back on his forehead, chasing the worst of the nausea away. His gaze followed the man as he went to fetch a chair in a corner of the room, brought it next to the bed, and sat down on it, crossing his arms and looking intently at Yumichika with a frown on his face. They looked at each other in silence for a while, until the man spoke again, in a low voice:

" Look, kid. I don't know what's wrong with you, in your head I mean, but I do know that you're in no physical shape to go running around. You've got cuts and bruises all over the place, not to mention a few broken ribs and a broken leg. One of your lungs is still making funny noises, and you haven't eaten in days. You still have a fever even though it's come down a lot already, and you just spent four days in some sort of coma. So really, you need to _stay put_, understand? "

Yumichika nodded weakly. He didn't _want_ to "stay put", but he knew the man was right: he just was in too bad a shape to be out there on his own. The man nodded too, and went on.

" I can see you're scared and you don't trust me. Can't really blame you for that, but still I want you to know that I have absolutely no intention of hurting you in any way. You probably don't believe me, but that's the truth. I just want you to get better, OK? So you focus on that instead of trying to get away, and you stop acting stupid. The faster you heal, the sooner we'll be rid of each other, so it's only benefits for both of us. Get that? "

Again, Yumichika nodded. He indeed didn't believe the man, but for now he was too weak to do anything about it. The man stood up, grabbed his sword, and spoke one last time.

" I've gotta go and get us some money. I want you to stay put, lie down and go back to sleep. I'll be back soon, and then we can talk some more if you want. But for now, you rest. Deal? "

Yumichika gave another nod. The man grunted, turned around, and left the room. Exhausted and thoroughly confused, Yumichika closed his eyes and tried to put some order into his thoughts. Soon though, he felt the heaviness of sleep invading his body and his mind, and he gave in to the fatigue.


	6. Chapter 5 : The Escape

Chapter Five: the Escape

Ikkaku grinned as he pocketed the bag containing his earnings for the evening. It felt very satisfyingly heavy, and it was well-worth the circus show he'd had to go through to earn it. It wasn't the fights that bothered him, of course not, it was all the decorum around them, with the announcements and the commentaries and the pauses and whatnot. If he had his way, he would run all the way through the fights, but of course that was not what the people were paying for.

Ah well. He shrugged ; it paid well enough that he could afford the room at the inn, and the constant flow of food, and the doctor's visits, and the medicine... From the millionth time, he winced as he realised just how much money he was pouring into taking care of that ungrateful brat. He'd never spent that much money on anything - except for his sword, of course - , and he couldn't figure out why, for the life of him, he was so intent on nursing that kid back to health. He knew it wasn't just for his angel face, because he could remember that somewhere deep inside, he'd already decided to help the child out even before he'd taken a proper look at his face. It most definitely wasn't for his company, seeing as how the kid was the worst conversationalist ever - he evaded half of the questions Ikkaku asked him, and lied in answer to the other half - , and how he was still clearly intent on escaping as soon as he would be able to. And it wasn't for his personality either, because except for his admirable yet exasperating stubborness and single-mindedness, he hadn't shown anything worth calling 'personality' to begin with. So Ikkaku didn't know why he was bothering with the little twit.

The only thing he could figure that made any sense was that he wanted to give the little fighter a real chance at life - or was it death, since technically they were all dead? He had seen the scars and the bruises on the little body, not the fresh ones caused by the fight with the woodcutters, but the old ones, the weeks- and months-old ones, and he knew there was only one way they could have come to be. He had also seen the state of the little feet, and the flimsy tunic that the boy - because he _was_ a boy after all, as Ikkaku had been able to confirm - had worn when Ikkaku had found him: they all told him that the child had not been on the road for more than a few days before he'd run into Ikkaku, which meant that he had probably just escaped his previous environment, wherever that was. He obviously had no idea how to take care of himself, seeing as how he had been half-starved to (second) death already. And finally there were the psychological scars, the ones Ikkaku couldn't see but which screamed at him in the boy's body language every time he got physically close to the kid, every time he undressed him to attend to his injuries, and almost every time he opened his mouth, as though whatever he said meant something bad in the child's language. Ikkaku had never met anyone so adept at interpreting everything as a potential threat, so bent on running away from everything and everyone, and it gave him a strange and unpleasant feeling somewhere in his guts whenever he saw the kid fight back terror and panic born out of some imaginary menace only he could see in Ikkaku's words and deeds. That was no way to live, and somehow Ikkaku felt he wanted to change all that, though he had no idea how.

Walking swiftly through the dark streets - he didn't want to risk getting mobbed and robbed tonight, no matter how small the chances of that were - , Ikkaku made his way back to the inn, hoping like every day that he would find the boy in the room when he opened the door. The kid _was_ going to run away someday, but Ikkaku knew it was too early still and he was hoping with all his heart that the kid realised it too. He pushed the door to the inn and made his way through the almost-deserted dining-room, noticing along the way the strange look the innkeeper gave him but dismissing it as just a look of disapproval at Ikkaku's after-fight dress state. However, when he entered his bedroom and found it empty, the innkeeper's look took on a whole new meaning, and the innkeeper himself suddenly discovered how it felt to be held by the throat two feet into the air.

" Where is he? "

The innkeeper spluttered and shook his head frantically, but didn't answer. Ikkaku shook him.

" Where. Is. He? "

Turning slowly blue from the lack of air, the innkeeper tugged desperately at Ikkaku's hand, while still shaking his head. Behind him, however, Ikkaku noticed a teenage girl standing in a doorway and silently beckoning for him to come. Ikkaku threw the innkeeper onto one of the tables - noting with a grin the satisfying sound of wood breaking - and followed the girl down a dark corridor. She led him to what was obviously a storage room, where she headed towards a series of old barrels. She rapped quietly three times on one of them before pulling the lid off. Inside, Ikkaku saw the pale face of his little fighter staring up at him, his huge purple eyes filled with fear. As gently as he could manage it, Ikkaku reached inside the barrel and helped the boy out, while listening to the whispered explanations the girl was giving him.

" Two men came. They asked Father about you. He said you were out. Then they asked to see him", she said, pointing to the boy. " Father said you had told him not to let anyone in the room when you weren't there. So the men started offering money. That's when I went and took him out of your room and hid him here. I opened the window in your room, to make it look like he had escaped, and it worked. The men were furious but they left. I didn't dare take him back to the room, though, in case they came back. I figured he should stay hidden until you returned. "

Ikkaku grunted his approval while checking the boy over. He was pale, his breathing was not quite right, and he was obviously unsteady on his feet, but at least he didn't look like he was going to pass out any time soon. He was also wearing a long-sleeved tunic and a pair of pants that Ikkaku had never seen before, made from some rough but sturdy material ; they were too big for him but they seemed to have done a good job at keeping him warm enough. Behind them, the girl had pulled a leather bag out of another empty barrel, and she presented it to Ikkaku, saying:

" I think you should leave. The men will come back, I'm sure of it. Here, take this. There is food for two days, a blanket, and the bandages and medicine you had in your room. If there is anything else I can get you, just tell me... "

Ikkaku shook his head, grunting again. Strapping the bag over his shoulder so that it rested on the front of his hip opposite to where he was wearing his sword, he crouched down and motioned to the kid to hop on his back. The boy stared at him with incredulous wide eyes for a second, but he obeyed anyway, wrapping his arms around Ikkaku's neck and his legs around his waist. Ikkaku clearly heard him moan in pain as he grabbed the little legs and stood up, but the kid held on tight, digging his hands into Ikkaku's shirt as though his life depended on it. Ikkaku then turned around looking for the girl, and found her already waiting for them at the far end of the storage room, near an open door which, judging from the sounds, led to the street. She stuck her head outside, checked left and right, and, turning back, motioned to Ikkaku to come. He stopped briefly in front of her, bowed slightly, whispered a strangled thank you, and exited quietly. He heard the girl close the door behind him.

He started walking rapidly through the streets, while mentally weighing his options. He was trying to keep to the middle kind of streets: not the main ones where he would be too noticeable with his unusual charge, but not the back alleys either where he would be too much at risk of being attacked - it would be much harder to defend himself properly with the kid latched onto his back. He wasn't sure what he wanted to do. On the one hand, he wanted to leave town as soon as possible, before anyone else had a chance to find him and claim the kid. But on the other hand, he wasn't sure the kid was strong enough yet to stand another round of life in the wilderness. In the end though, he decided that getting away from the most immediate danger was the most important priority, and he headed towards the outskirts of the town.

He walked for a good three hours on the dark road, before an increase in the frequency of the moans escaping the boy's lips, and in the intensity of the twitches that shook his body every time Ikkaku repositioned him on his back, told him that the kid was reaching the end of his endurance and that it was time to think of finding a place to rest. Leaving the road, Ikkaku headed through the fields towards a little wood not far away, stepping carefully to avoid jerking the boy around too much. Once in the woods, he explored the area a bit, until he found a patch of mossy ground sheltered by some low-hanging branches. He knelt down and lowered the boy's legs as gently as he could. While the kid unsteadily got to his own feet, Ikkaku foraged in the bag on his hip, found the blanket and threw it around his own shoulders, before sitting down under the tree, grabbing the kid, sitting him down in his lap, and closing the blanket around the two of them.

As he had fully expected, the kid immediately silently panicked as he was being forced into this close physical contact, but Ikkaku held on tightly, one arm pinning the little arms and torso to his own chest, and the other trapping the legs against his hip. Something tightened painfully inside Ikkaku's chest as he listened to the fast, ragged breathing and as he registered the incredible tension in the little body's muscles, but still he held on tight, not moving, not talking, just waiting for the boy to realise that nothing bad was going to happen. Ikkaku couldn't tell how long it took, but eventually, he did feel the little body relax in his embrace, and he heard the shallow breathing slow down and grow deeper. He then loosened the hold he had on the boy, allowing him to settle himself so as to be as comfortable as possible, before rearranging the blanket so as to ensure the maximum coverage for both of them. And then, after he'd felt the kid become heavier and heavier, and his breathing become slower and slower, all signs indicating that he had finally fallen asleep, Ikkaku allowed himself to close his eyes and to get some much needed rest too.


	7. Chapter 6 : Strange New Feelings

A/N:

- Vanessa: you should be more careful about proposing to perfect strangers, you know ;-) One of them might take you to your word one day :-P Anyway: that's a hard bargain you drive, girl, but I'm afraid I'll have to turn your offer down. You see, I come with, erm, "accessories", and I don't think that basket of yours would hold me and my husband and our son :-D Can I still have the cookies, though?

- cfox: thanks for the sweet review, but I must admit you got me confused when you mentioned the "fun" story O.o ... Ah well, as long as you like it ;-)

--

About this chapter: I'm not sure why I feel the need to repeat it, but this is not romance, OK? So no, those strange new feelings have nothing to do with romantic feelings. If you can't figure out what they are, then try to remember being a kid, and being hurt or confused, and being comforted by a trusted adult, that should give you the general idea.

--

I don't always remember to include it, because in my mind it goes without saying:

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.

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Chapter six: Strange New Feelings

Yumichika lay still, listening intently, panic flooding his body. A man had crept into his room, into his bed, and was now lying right next to him. He could feel the man's body heat radiate all the way to his bones, he could feel the man's breath in his hair, he could feel the man's hands on his body, he could even hear the man's heartbeat. Yumichika didn't want this, he wanted the man gone, he wanted to be left alone. He started lashing out, hitting, scratching, and yelling too. But the man was strong and he was fast, and now he had managed to grab both of Yumichika's wrists and he was holding them still. He was talking too, though Yumichika couldn't quite hear what he was saying. Yumichika fought harder, yelling and pleading and crying, and all the while the man's voice grew louder and louder, until finally Yumichika could properly hear it and understand what it said:

" Kid!! Wake up! "

Yumichika's eyes flew open. For a moment, he looked wildly around him, not recognising where he was. Terror was coursing through his body, blood was pounding in his ears, he was covered in sweat, and he was gasping for breath. Then his gaze found something his brain recognised as familiar, and Yumichika stared and stared and stared until finally something snapped in place in his head and he understood what he was looking at : a face, Ikkaku's bald face, looking oddly grey in the thin light of early morning. Relief flooding his entire being, Yumichika closed his eyes and felt himself going limp at the realisation that the man in his bed had just been a nightmare, that he wasn't real, that even though Ikkaku was indeed lying next to him and holding his wrists, things weren't like they had been in his dream.

He felt Ikkaku lowering him gently back onto the ground and wrapping him tightly into the blanket, and he listened as the man busied himself with the usual morning affairs: building a small fire, boiling some water, making tea... Yumichika waited, eyes half-closed, as his heart rate and his breathing returned to normal, and the fog in his brain cleared up. He slowly sat up, still hugging the blanket close to him, when he heard Ikkaku pour the tea into the cups, just in time to take the one Ikkaku was already handing him. He sipped the hot drink in silence, relishing the warmth that was spreading steadily from his stomach and hands throughout his body. Each mouthful seemed to take him a step further away from the memory of his nightmare, and a step closer to the real world around him.

They had been on the road for several days now, but Yumichika still shuddered when he remembered the events of the day they had left the inn. He remembered the determined look on the cleaning girl's face when she had burst into his room, opened his window, pulled him out of bed and told him to hurry, because there were men looking for him. He remembered the ball of terror that had exploded in his stomach at her words, how he had decided to believe her for the time being, and how the adrenaline had allowed him to walk even on his broken leg, with her help, all the way to the storage room. He remembered getting stuffed into the barrel, how dark and stinky it was in there, how helpless and scared he had felt, not knowing who would be looking down at him the next time the top would come off the barrel, not knowing if maybe the girl had in fact imprisoned him in order to hand him over to someone else later. He had thought of trying to escape, of course, but the shooting pain in his leg had clearly told him that this was an unrealistic idea.

He had had way too much time to think during the long hours he'd been left in that barrel, and he'd wondered not only who the men were - were they from the orphanage? - , but also how they had known where to find him. Who had told them about him? Was it the innkeeper? The doctor? The girl? Or was it maybe... Ikkaku? For some reason, this one particular thought created a very painful feeling in his chest and brought tears to his eyes, though he couldn't figure out why. The girl had said she'd leave him there until Ikkaku came back - though she had returned once in-between to help him put on some much-needed warm clothing - , but what if Ikkaku _didn't_ come back? If he was the one who had sold him, then he wouldn't come back, would he? Or maybe he would, but that would only be to take him to the men himself! So many possibilities, all more terrible the one than the next...

Yumichika remembered how his mind had reeled, and how in the end he had forced himself to focus on one thought only: Ikkaku would come back to save him again. It was very unlikely, but it was the only thought that didn't fill him with despair, so he forced himself to hang onto it throughout the long dark hours he spent all alone in his barrel. And when Ikkaku had finally come back, and Yumichika had looked up into his grim face, he'd known instinctively that Ikkaku wasn't the one who had ratted him out to the men after all, and that yes, he was going to save him again. He'd felt another very strange feeling in his chest at that moment, a good feeling this time, one that had made him feel warm for some reason.

It had been several days ago already, and every day since then had been the same. They would wake up early and have tea and maybe bread or whatever was left over from the previous night's dinner, if anything. Then Ikkaku would pack the bag, he would help Yumichika get onto his back, and off they would go, through the woods and the fields, always keeping close to the river. Ikkaku had said that he didn't want to go on the roads and Yumichika knew that it was because of the men who were looking for him. They would walk for several hours, and then they would stop by the river when the sun was high, and Ikkaku would take off Yumichika's bandages and he would wash them and leave them to dry on stones. He would also carefully wash Yumichika's wounds, the few big ones that hadn't fully closed yet, and he would insist that Yumichika let them dry freely in the air too. Then once the bandages were dry again, he would replace them on the wounds, and he would re-set the crude cast that held Yumichika's lower leg straight (two sticks of wood tied together by bandages, really), and Yumichika would go up on his back, and off they would go, looking for some place - a farm, a village - to buy food for their dinner.

Whenever they would get close to other people, Ikkaku would insist that Yumichika hide his face by placing it in the crook of the man's neck and by letting his hair (Yumichika's hair, since Ikkaku didn't have any) cover his face as much as possible. And strangely enough, Yumichika had come to like those moments, even look forward to them, because for some unknown reason the smell of Ikkaku's skin made him feel relaxed, it seemed to chase away the fear and anxiety that were always present in the pit of his stomach.

Another time that Yumichika both feared and looked forward to was the moment when they lay down for the night. They had only one blanket, so they were forced to share it, and Yumichika both hated and relished that. Of course, they could have bought a second blanket, but Yumichika suspected that Ikkaku didn't want to because he didn't trust Yumichika not to try and run away during the night, so he preferred to keep him close while he was sleeping. And Yumichika was terrified to admit it, even if it was only to himself, but he actually enjoyed sleeping with the man's strong arms around him. He was always highly uncomfortable at first of course, as his survival instincts screamed at him to run away from the close physical contact, but once he managed to relax enough, he felt one of those strange new feelings blooming in his chest and spreading warmth throughout his body. Even the feeling of Ikkaku's regular breath in his hair, which always panicked him at first, ended up calming him in the end.

Yumichika couldn't explain it, but he knew he enjoyed those strange new quiet relaxing sensations that he felt when Ikkaku held him.


	8. Chapter 7 : The Deal

A/N:

- useless-knight: squee is good :-) ! (And there is no such thing as useless knights, by the way ;-) )

- chica blanca, lelann, virtual-asshole (now what kind of a name is that :-D ? ) and when love and death embrace: thanks for the words of appreciation and encouragement :-) ! I find I'm getting high on those, but it's a good kind of high... I think :-P

- vanessa: chocolate chip all the way!!

--

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach - which is good by the way, because it would stink if I did :-P

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Chapter Seven: The Deal

Ikkaku had a problem and he wasn't sure what to do about it. His money, even though he wasn't using anywhere as much of it as he used to back when they were at the inn, was slowly but surely disappearing. Buying food pretty much every day, even if it was just a piece of bread, a bowlful of rice, or a few pieces of fruit, did not come that cheap in the long run. He was going to have to replenish his finances some time soon. The only problem was, his favourite way of doing so was not exactly... compatible with his current, er, responsibilities. In other words: there was no way in Soul Society he was going to take the kid to a fighting club! No way no how, that would have been asking for more troubles than even Ikkaku felt like dealing with. But the alternative, namely leaving the boy somewhere while he went off to fight, did not particularly appeal to him either, as he was still quite certain that the kid hadn't completely let go of his deep-seated desire to escape. And even though the child was now much stronger and much healthier than he had been a few weeks ago, Ikkaku still didn't think it would be a good idea for him to take off on his own just yet. Sure he could walk again now, even run, but he still knew precious little about how to survive on the road on his own. And quite frankly, Ikkaku hadn't gone through all this trouble just to have the kid get killed or captured by the next person who would cross his path, now, had he?! But what to do? Leave him somewhere and risk him escaping? Take him with him and risk getting into even bigger fights than what he was planning on? Frustrated, he frowned and let out an irritated sigh.

The sound of sandals slapping on the road behind him as the kid once again had to run to catch up with him jerked Ikkaku out of his musings. Silently berating himself, he forced himself to slow down a bit and watched out of the corner of his eye as the kid reappeared at his side. The boy was a bit flushed and slightly breathless from having to walk so fast, but otherwise he looked better than Ikkaku could ever remember seeing him look. The long hours of traveling every day on the road had turned his skin a very light but decidedly healthy-looking tan color, his long black hair was shining as it danced rythmically around his face with each step he took, and the large purple eyes were focused with determination on the road in front of him instead of darting all over the place in fear and anxiety as they used to. Granted, the kid's behaviour was still pretty much as odd as it had ever been - he still hadn't given Ikkaku his name for one - , but at least he _looked_ better, which was as good a beginning as any.

'A beginning for what?', asked a mocking voice in Ikkaku's head. Annoyed, he tried to ignore it, but he couldn't really deny the fact that the voice had a point. Ikkaku had been nursing quite the wrong kind of thoughts at times lately, and he had to snap out of it. This... association - he didn't know what to call it really - with the kid was only a _temporary_ arrangement. He was going to make him better - well, he had already done that technically... OK, so now he was going to teach the kid a trick or two about living on the road, and then off they would go their separate paths... Sometimes soon. Yeah. That was it. Firmly ignoring the snort the voice inside his head let out, along with the squirming feeling in his stomach, Ikkaku unconsciously set his jaw and picked up his pace, as though trying to express physically the resolve he knew he wasn't exactly feeling inside. The growing attachment he could feel himself developing towards the kid was seriously starting to unsettle him, but he really didn't know what to do about it. It was illogical, absurd, unfounded and potentially dangerous, each of which should have been more than enough to put a definite end to those irritating feelings, and yet somehow he kept catching himself making plans for the future that involved the kid. The very act of making plans for the future was already something that was thoroughly out of character for Ikkaku, since he much preferred to take life as it came, but the fact that those plans somehow all included the little brat was downright scary in Ikkaku's opinion. He'd have to snap out of it soon...

A small gasp and a big thump somewhere behind him once again interrupted his train of thought. He turned around to find the boy sitting on the road and holding his lower right leg in both his hands, with a wince on his face. Muttering curses under his breath, Ikkaku backtracked and knelt down in front of the kid. He gently pried the clenched little hands apart and grabbed the boy's leg in his own big hands, already knowing what he was going to find. Sure enough, here it was, the muscle on the shin, bulging spasmodically in what must have been a rather painful case of cramping. Gently but firmly, Ikkaku started rubbing and massaging the convulsing muscle with his thumbs, until he felt the rhythmic throbbing stop and the knot disappear. Then he placed his hands under the kid's shoulders, picked him off the floor, held him up to his chest, waited for the kid to securely wrap his arms and legs around his neck and torso, and, leaving the road behind, went looking for a secluded spot to lie down in for a while. He felt the kid rest his head on his shoulder, and strands of hair and soft breaths caress the skin on his neck, and even though he would never have admitted to it, it all made him feel quite a good deal less grumpy.

A few minutes later, Ikkaku was sitting under a large tree, the kid lying on the floor close to him. He rummaged half-heartedly through the bag, knowing in advance that he wasn't going to find anything edible in there, and the sight of the almost-empty money pouch brought his most pressing worries back to his mind. He let out a small sigh, and mentally braced himself for what he knew was going to be another thoroughly bewildering experience in trying to hold a reasonable conversation with a child who seemed to be using even the most common words in a perfectly baffling way.

" Hm, kid? "

The boy looked up at Ikkaku through a curtain of shiny black hair, before sitting up slowly, a carefully composed neutral look on his face. With a slight twinge of annoyance, Ikkaku wondered for the ten million billionth time what in all the worlds was going on behind that beautiful face to make the kid react so strangely to pretty much everything Ikkaku said or did, but he also did his best to hide his irritation, knowing that the boy would pick up on it right away. Instead, he raised the deflated money bag in his hand, and explained:

" We're running out of money. "

Fear flashed through the purple eyes, but Ikkaku, unwilling to wonder yet again how anything he had said could possibly be construed as a threat of any sort, forced himself to ignore it. He continued:

" I'm gonna have to go and get us some more. "

Silence.

" Uh... Thing is, I can't really take you with me for that... "

This time, it was confusion that showed itself on the beautiful little face. This at least, Ikkaku could deal with.

" Yeah, see, I go to those, uh, places where you can find people who bet on fights, and I fight, and I usually win, and that gets me some money. But, er, well, obviously, I can't really take you there, I'm sure you can understand that, right? "

Yes, the kid understood. He still looked pretty confused, but he understood.

" So, hum, it looks like we have a bit of a problem. "

Fear again. _Ignore it, Ikkaku, ignore it._

" Yeah, 'cause, see, I have to leave you alone while I go and fight, but on the other hand I'm not exactly sure you'll still be here when I come back. So you can see my problem, right? "

Yes the boy still understood, but if anything the fear in his eyes only seemed to have grown in intensity, and that was starting to get on Ikkaku's nerves. A bit more snappily than he had meant to, he asked:

" What 'cha looking at me like that? It's not like I'm gonna tie you to a tree or something, you know! "

The boy jumped a little but strangely the look of fear in his eyes seemed to diminish. He was now looking mostly confused and maybe a bit curious. Ikkaku went on.

" So, how do you suggest we solve that problem? "

The large purple eyes seemed to grow even bigger as utter bewilderement invaded the pretty face. Ikkaku sighed.

" Look kid, I'm not stupid, I can see you wanna run away, and I totally understand that. But you and I both know that you can't quite take care of yourself yet. You obviously don't know much about living on the road. I can teach you that, but for that you need to stay with me for a while. Believe me, if you run away now, I swear I'm not gonna go and run after ya to get your sorry ass out of whatever trouble you're bound to get yourself into, get that? But if you stay with me, I'll teach you a trick or two, and then you can decide when you want to leave... So what do you think? "

A small frown had appeared on the kid's face. He didn't answer right away, and when he did, it was in his carefully monitored voice that always creeped Ikkaku out:

" What do you want from me... in exchange? "

The question took Ikkaku by surprise. He scratched his bald head to give himself some time to think. What _did_ he want in exchange? He thought hard about it, but try as he may, he couldn't find an answer. So in the end he just shrugged:

" Nothin'. "

The purple eyes became round with stupefaction, and a very uncharacteristic snort escaped from the kid's lips:

" Yeah, right! Like I'm supposed to believe that! "

Ikkaku watched, bewildered, as a new emotion - was it anger? - settled on the kid's face. There was definitely an aggressive edge in the boy's voice when he added:

" Just tell me what you want from me, all right? I'm not _that_ stupid, you know. "

Utterly bemused, Ikkaku shrugged again:

" What _could_ I want from you, kid? You ain't got no money, you ain't got no nothin'. So really it's not like you _could_ give me anything in exchange anyway. "

Astonishment replaced anger. The kid opened his mouth, but no sound came out of it. He seemed totally at a loss for words. Ikkaku watched him close and open his mouth several times, as if he wanted to say something but had forgotten how to speak, until finally he managed to utter a few words, in a rather strangled voice:

" You... really don't want... _anything_... from me? "

Each of his words was dripping with incredulity, amazement, and a little something that Ikkaku couldn't quite place. And there was that same little something - was it hope? - shining through in the purple eyes. Ikkaku thought hard. As much as the concept disgusted him, he had to admit that he knew exactly what the kid was talking about. He really _really_ didn't want to talk about it, but it seemed like this time he couldn't escape it. As distateful as the subject was, he had to deal with it. Bracing himself again, he replied:

" No kid, I really don't want _anything_ from you... And especially not _that_. Got it? I'm not like that. I dunno where you come from and how people are there, but me that's just not my style, not even close. Granted you've got the prettiest face I've ever seen, but hum, no, just _no_, OK? "

The look on the boy's face made Ikkaku wince inside. That whole business was just so incredibly _wrong_, that a kid would look that relieved just because he'd been told that someone wasn't going to make a move on him. Ikkaku had always known that this after-life world was thoroughly messed up, but it'd been a long time since he'd felt so disgusted by it all. He sighed and scratched his head again, before deciding to return to a less uncomfortable topic.

" So, anyway, do we have a deal? If I leave you somewhere while I go and get us some money, can I trust that you won't try to escape or anything? "

He sighed in relief when the boy nodded slowly and hesitantly.


	9. Chapter 8 : Lost and Found

A/N:

- Vanessa: that pile of cookies in the corner of the living-room is making everyone around here happy. I even caught the cat nibbling at one of them!

- About this chapter: I had a special cameo appearance in mind, but then my brain got stuck on the feasibility for anyone, even shinigamis, to be wearing glasses before glasses had actually been invented... Tch! Should give you an idea who my intented cameo was, though ;-)

--

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.

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Chapter Eight: Lost and Found

Yumichika was running harder than he could remember ever running before. A Hollow! He'd heard of those, but he'd never actually seen one before and quite frankly, he'd be happy if he never saw one again. Well, that was _if_ he survived meeting this one, of course, which for now wasn't exactly a given. Yumichika was fast, but the Hollow, no matter how big, heavy and clumsy it looked, was not slow either. And with its longer legs and sheer body mass, it wasn't as bothered by such obstacles as trees or rocks as Yumichika was, who had to jump over boulders or take detours around bushes. Try as he might, Yumichika was quite sure the Hollow was gaining on him. He cursed under his breath - a habit he'd unconsciously taken after Ikkaku - and willed his legs to move even faster.

Honestly, what a lack of luck, to run into a Hollow today of all days! It wasn't that often that Ikkaku left him to go earn some money, and yet he had to meet his first Hollow precisely at one of those times! Yumichika was seething at the injustice of it all. Against a human enemy, he could maybe have held his own, thanks to all those long hours he'd been spending training with Ikkaku those last weeks. But he knew that his stick and moves, no matter how good they were, were useless against a Hollow: nothing short of a good fighter armed with a sword could hope to win a fight against the monster. Yumichika's only chance at survival was to outrun the Hollow.

He allowed himself to sigh inwardly when he reached a dirt road. Running would be easier on the even terrain, and if only he managed to last long enough, he was bound to meet someone sooner or later who might help him. He could feel a stitch taking form in his side, but at least the intensive training was paying off as far as his muscles were concerned: no cramp and no weakness had yet appeared anywhere. If he could just ignore the stitch, he could go on running for quite a while yet. If only he could reach a village, or a group of travelers, or _something_...

He screamed in shock when two black shadows, appearing from out of nowhere, landed right in front of him. At the speed he was going, he couldn't stop himself in time to avoid them, so he ran right between the two of them, hoping wildly that they wouldn't try to grab him as he went past them. To his relief, the two shadows didn't seem interested in him, as he was able to run right next to them without either of them trying to stop him in any way. He put a few more dozen paces between him and them before slowing down and glancing backwards. What he saw made him stop dead in his tracks and gape openly.

The two men in black robes - for that was what they were, now that he was taking a better look at them - were attacking the Hollow in a series of moves and jumps so fast that Yumichika's eyes could hardly follow them. The men were both armed with a sword, and they were taking precise swipes at the monster, while cleverly avoiding its strikes. The Hollow roared fiercely as one particularly lucky shot allowed one of the men to cut one of the white arms off entirely. Luck was on both sides though, as soon after the other man was sent hurtling through the air by a powerful punch from the monster's remaining fist, but it didn't take long for the man to recover and soon enough he was back into the fight. The battle lasted a few more minutes, until one of the men, seizing a chance opening that the monster's lack of an arm was giving him, managed to land a powerful strike right on the Hollow's head, effectively cutting all the way through its mask. Almost instantly, the entire white monstruous body dissolved into thin air and peace once again took over the quiet countryside.

Entranced, Yumichika stared as the men sheathed their swords and looked around them. Noticing the boy gaping at them, one of the men walked towards him, a kind smile on his face.

" Hey, kid, are you all right? "

Being talked to re-activated Yumichika's survival instincts, and he immediately took a couple of steps backwards, while carefully keeping his eyes on the oncoming man. The man gave a quick, soft chuckle and held his hands in what seemed to be an attempt at a peace gesture. His brown eyes twinkled gently and his lips held a bright smile as he said:

" Don't worry, we're not going to hurt you. We are shinigamis from the Gotei 13, it's our job to purify Hollows, not to attack the locals. "

Yumichika didn't understand half of what the man said - and didn't quite believe the other half - , but this didn't seem to faze the man, who concluded:

" Well, if you're all right, then I guess our job is done here... ? "

The man seemed to take Yumichika's lack of an answer for a response nonetheless ; he looked back at his companion, who nodded shortly, and they jumped into the air, so fast that Yumichika barely had time to register their action before they were already out of view. Startled, Yumichika looked wildly around him, but there was nobody in sight anymore anywhere he looked. He stood for a few minutes where he was, his mind replaying the amazing events he had just witnessed and wondering who or what those men were - he really hadn't understood anything about the man's explanations - , until he noticed with a jolt that the sky was already turning red on the horizon. Night was coming, and he had to find his way back to the campsite!

Starting back up the road, he tried to remember just how long he had run on it, as his eyes roamed the countryside on his left, trying to find a familiar landmark that would tell him which way to go. But all the trees looked the same from here and of course Yumichika couldn't quite remember just what the fields and thickets he had run through had looked like. Frowning, he stopped in his tracks, and thought hard. He realised that he wasn't going to find his way back by using this method. He had to find another way. As he gazed absently over the countryside in front of him, a glint of reflected light caught his eye. The river! The campsite hadn't been far away from the river. If he cut straight through the fields here all the way to the river, and then followed it, he was bound to come close to the campsite sooner or later. That was worth trying.

An hour later, the night had completely fallen and Yumichika was fighting panic back as he was forced to contemplate the simple fact that he was utterly lost. He had found the river without any problem, but he had now been following it for so long that he didn't know anymore whether the campsite was still further ahead of him or if he had missed it altogether. It hadn't been exactly _by_ the river after all, so it was very possible that he had walked right past it without seeing it. On the other hand, he _had_ run quite some time while fleeing the Hollow, so it was also possible that he simply hadn't reached the right place yet. And now, under the darkness of the night, the probability that he would find it at all had become almost entirely null...

Trying not to succumb to despair and panic, Yumichika sat under a tree, brought his knees to his chest and hugged his legs tightly. He was in a bad situation, he knew it, but running blind in the woods at night was only likely to make things worse. His best option, as far as he could see, was to wait the night out and resume his search in the light of the morning. Of course, even in the morning, he would probably still not know which way to go... He forcefully rejected that thought : there was no point worrying in advance about what he would do the next day. Maybe he would be struck by some kind of idea during the night. Or something.

Unfortunately, the other thought that kept coming to him was not so easy to chase away. _What about Ikkaku?_ How would he react when he came back to the campsite to find Yumichika gone? What would he think? Would he notice the Hollow's trail? If he did, what kind of conclusion would he draw from it? Would he go looking for Yumichika? Or would he assume he was dead? And if he didn't notice the presence of the Hollow - after all, Yumichika had been roaming around looking for berries when he had been attacked - , then would Ikkaku assume that Yumichika had run away or something? Would he wait for him to come back in the morning, or would he leave without him? Yumichika's blood kept running cold at the idea that he might be separated from Ikkaku for good. He couldn't identify all the different kinds of emotion that were filling his mind and heart at the thought that he would never see the bald man again, but he didn't need to put a name on them to know that he would take it very badly if he lost Ikkaku now. The man had been his provider, and trainer, and protector, for so long now, Yumichika felt lost and helpless just thinking of living on his own again. Fighting back the tears that were threatening to overwhelm him, he focused all his thoughts on Ikkaku, as though doing so could somehow make the bald man hear him, and find him...

A flicker of light somewhere on his right made him look up. Squinting through the darkness, he peered again in the direction where he thought he had seen something out of the corner of his eye. And sure enough, there it was again, the unmistakable glow of fire. Yumichika's heart beat hard in his chest, but he forced himself not to hope too much. It could be Ikkaku, but then again it might not be. As silently as possible, he started walking toward the source of light. It wasn't easy, creeping through the shadows among the bushes and the rocks and the trees, but the yellow glow in front of him kept pulling him forward, beckoning to him, filling him with hope no matter how hard he tried to reason with himself. Time passed slowly as he carefully made his way through the woods, his muscles finally grew tired, and fatigue caught up with him, but on and on he went ; he would not stop until he reached the source of that light, he _could__n__o__t_ stop.

For a long while, it seemed as though he wasn't getting any closer to the fire, and Yumichika started feeling tendrils of doubt and despair creep into his mind. Was he imagining things? Was it some kind of trickery? Still, he couldn't give up, not yet, not just yet, so on he went, until finally he realised that the fire was definitely getting bigger. He _was_ getting closer. Paradoxically, this made him slow down even more. He had to be extra-careful now, because there was a high probability that it was not Ikkaku who had built that fire after all, and Yumichika certainly didn't want to run into anyone else at night. So slowly, cautiously, he approached the clearing where the huge fire was roaring. Laying low, he observed, looking for silhouettes, listening for voices. He couldn't see or hear anyone yet, and this made him nervous. Finally, a single shadow came from the other side of the large blaze, and Yumichika's heart leapt in his chest. A cry escaped his lips, and he jumped into the clearing before he could even think about what he was doing.

" Ikkaku! "

The man dropped the sticks of wood he was carrying and turned, looking at Yumichika who had stopped a few feet away from him. Yumichika couldn't see his face since the man was now standing with his back to the fire, so he didn't know what to expect, what to do, and he suddenly felt very unsure about the whole situation. But then Ikkaku lunged forward and grabbed him and hugged him so tightly Yumichika could hardly breathe anymore, and he knew that everything was going to be all right. He hugged Ikkaku back, hard, buried his face in the man's neck, and allowed two tears to roll down his cheeks. He was back.


	10. Chapter 9 : Threatened Identity

A/N (pretty long today, sorry):

- From the Psyche Ward: your review sent me straight on Cloud 9! In particular, I am sooooo happy to hear that you think the characters are still in character, this is so important to me, thank you! (grins, giggles, sighs, and hums to herself in disgustingly happy contentment)

- Oh. My. Goodness! I got a positive review from VioTanequil, THE VioTanequil whose stories I enjoy so much!! (squeals) (Should PND pop up and make a positive review too, I'll probably pass out for good... O.o )

- v-a: as I hinted, one of the two shinigamis was supposed to be a cameo appearance by a rather famous "modern-day" character. That was until I realised that my story is probably taking place at least something like 150 or 200 years ago, and that my cameo is famous for his glasses - and my brain got stuck on how shinigamis could possibly be wearing glasses when people in the real world mostly weren't. So now it's up to you to use your imagination: re-read my description of the shinigami who talked to Yumi, factor in the glasses, and make your own deductions ;-) Of course, I could simply have changed the identity of the cameo, but I didn't feel like it for some reason. Heh.

- By the way, (Spoiler alert!) I forgot to mention: yes the Hollow scene from the previous chapter was shamelessly inspired by the last published chapter of the manga (-104). But at least my Yumi didn't go around weeping pathetically like little Shuuhei did! Yumichika so totally pwns Shuuhei - again! (sadistic grin) (By the way, was I the only one to guess the identity of the crying kid pretty much from the first picture he appears in - this I guess not, just the hair was a dead give-away - and to be disturbed by the sight of tough-guy Hisagi publicly losing it like that? I also didn't think he was that young...) (End of spoiler alert)

- Oh and in case you didn't notice: I can't write fighting scenes. I just stink at them. I love watching them and imagining them, but I just can't write them. (And please nobody mention how stupid it is of me to write a story about two fighters when I can't write fighting scenes - I know :-P ! )

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Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.

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Chapter Nine : Threatened Identity

Ikkaku grinned widely while dodging a well-aimed hit. Turning on the spot, he detected an opening and lounged at his opponent, who barely had time to block his attack, and lost his footing in the process. Smelling victory, Ikkaku rushed forward, swerved at the last moment, and landed a crushing blow on his opponent's shoulder, sending him crashing into the dust face first. With a huge smile on his face, Ikkaku turned around, laid his stick on his shoulder, and came to tower over his defeated opponent who was still lying face down on the floor, panting very heavily.

" Well done, kid! Very well done! "

The boy didn't answer ; instead he pushed himself off the floor on one arm and flipped over. He was still catching his breath, so he just looked Ikkaku in the eye and gave him a fierce grin of his own. Ikkaku offered him a hand and pulled him up, making sure he was steady on his feet before releasing him. They staggered together to the river that was running nearby, took off their fighting clothes, jumped into the cold waters, and started to scrub themselves to get rid of the dirt and sweat that had seemingly managed to cover every single square inch of their bodies during their training session. As usual, the kid was the first one out of the river - skinny and scrawny as he was, he always quickly got cold when dipping in outside waters, and he much preferred to go and lie on the grass in the sun. Ikkaku took much longer, letting the river massage his muscles and cool his nerves: he would be going to fight for money later on in the day, and he could do with a bit of relaxation beforehand.

When he finally got out of the water, he wrapped a towel around his hips, grabbed a pot in the bag, and went to join the kid, who seemed to be sleeping but then turned his head and opened his eyes when he heard Ikkaku approaching. A nervous wince played on the beautiful face as the man stopped two feet away from him and looked down at him, surveying the thin naked torso and limbs, looking for any sign of severe injury. Satisfied not to find any, Ikkaku motioned for the kid to get up, unscrewed the top of the pot of ointment, and started spreading it on all the visible but minor cuts and bruises he could find. He then treated himself in a similar manner, handing the pot to the boy in the end for him to do his back.

As they were putting their regular clothes back on, Ikkaku couldn't help but marvel at how much progress the kid had done in just under three months. He hadn't been exactly helpless when it came to fighting when Ikkaku had found him, but he had progressed by leaps and bounds since they had started the training sessions. He was a very attentive student, who listened to every word Ikkaku said and took them to heart, applying all his powers of concentration, and his exceptional determination, into putting into practice every little hint and piece of advice Ikkaku gave him. He was also, as Ikkaku had noticed from the very first day, much tougher and stronger physically than his appearance seemed to indicate, and this, coupled with his sheer stubborness, led to his willingly enduring long hours of hard training every day without ever complaining. In fact, Ikkaku had come to realise, after the boy had almost passed out from exhaustion a couple of times in the middle of a drawn-out fight, that far from pushing the kid, he actually needed to pull him back sometimes, to force him to take things a little easier, or even to stop and rest altogether. He had learned to set goals and limits for the kid to reach, and he was constantly amazed at how quickly and apparently almost effortlessly the boy always seemed to reach those objectives. Ikkaku had dubbed him a fighter on the first day he'd seen him, and his initial intuition had been confirmed and reinforced with each passing day ever since.

After a quick meal during which they ate the last of their food, Ikkaku picked up his sword and the empty bag and left to go to the town they had seen earlier lower down in the valley. It was a rather big city, and Ikkaku was confident he would have no problem finding a place where he could earn a reasonable sum of money. He looked back when he reached the paved road, to make sure that the place where he had left the kid was not visible to any passing traveler. He had no intention of repeating the rather traumatic experience of three weeks before, when he'd come back to find the campsite deserted, and so he took extra precautions to ensure that the kid would be safe while he was gone. Of course, a freak encounter with a Hollow was not something that could actually be prevented, but he still made darn sure that all other possibilities were being eradicated.

He still remembered the shock he had felt, and the panic which had seized him as he'd noticed the unmistakable signs of some huge thing having passed very close by the empty campsite. He had spent a good half-hour roaming the area and yelling at the top of his voice, but to no avail. Getting desperate at the realisation that night had fallen and the kid was out there with nothing but the clothes on his back, Ikkaku had done the only thing his frantic brain could think of: he had built a huge fire in a nearby clearing, hoping against the odds that the boy would somehow see it, wherever he was. The possibility that the kid had actually deliberately run away had crossed his mind too often for comfort, but Ikkaku had preferred to hold on to the idea that his disappearance was accidental and that he was intent on finding his way back. Ikkaku didn't care how much the voice inside his head was mocking him, he just didn't want to face a near-future without his little fighter - not yet, and definitely not like that. So he'd run around, picking up dead wood, hacking off tree limbs and feeding the ever-growing furnace, long into the night, refusing to stop, because it was easier to prevent his brain from over-thinking when he was keeping his body busy. And when finally he had heard the boy's voice shouting his name, and he'd turned around to see him standing there, disheveled and exhausted but alive and well, Ikkaku had been more than happy to give a mental finger to the voice in his head, even as he gave in to his relief and held the kid in a crushing embrace.

Upon reaching the city, Ikkaku spent very little time locating the right kind of neighbourhood for his purposes: poor, but not so poor that the rich people who were the best betters would not even come there. He was used to gauging streets, houses and people at a single glance, and he quickly found a tavern that seemed to him to be the kind of place where he could find someone who would know about where to find a fighting club. Sure enough, a short enquiry with the bartender led him to a secluded booth where a man who kept his face hidden under a large straw hat looked him over attentively before giving him directions to a nearby underground bar, and the name to mention to be accepted in. Following the instructions, Ikkaku easily located his target, and soon he was putting his name down for the afternoon tournament. There weren't many patrons in the bar yet, but that didn't surprise him: those places tended to get crowded mostly at night, which unfortunately meant that the day fights were not the best source of money. In normal circumstances, night-time was precisely when he would have bothered to come, but those days were not normal circumstances: Ikkaku wanted to avoid leaving the boy alone in the woods at night as much as possible. If that meant fighting more often for less money, then so be it. He loved fighting anyway, so having to do it more frequently didn't exactly break his heart, to say the least.

The rest of the day went very much as expected, and soon Ikkaku found himself the winner of the tournament, though judging by the number and the appearance of the betters, this victory was not going to provide him with a lot of money. He shrugged: it didn't matter, as long as he won enough to buy food for a few days. As he waited for the organisers to tally his winning, he let his gaze wander around, over the room, and the other competitors, and the bar, and the notice board besides it. That's when he saw it. It was just a black on white hand-drawn picture, but there was no mistaking the striking features: he was looking straight at a representation of his little fighter's face. He went to un-pin the notice with a slightly shaky hand, and read it over. He felt his jaw slacken and his brain freeze in astonishment. What he was holding was a "missing" notice, and the amount of the reward offered to anyone who could locate the boy was quite simply ludicrous. It was so big Ikkaku couldn't even wrap his mind around it. It was more than he had ever made in a single year, that was for sure...

A tap on his shoulder brought him back to his senses. Instinctively, even as he turned to face the tournament organiser handing him his earnings, he crunched the notice in his fist, before quickly shoving it in his bag. In a daze, he grabbed the pouch that was dangling under his nose, barely noticing how light it was, and he hurriedly left the bar, as though the place had suddenly somehow become dangerous. He had to exercise a great deal of self-control not to break into a run once he was outside, and he settled instead for a very fast walk straight ahead, with no care as to where exactly he was going.

In contrast with his legs, his brain seemed stuck. No matter how much he tried to push past it, he couldn't get over the sheer ridiculous amount of money that was offered as a reward for the capture of his angel-faced fighter. It didn't make any sense, it simply didn't make any sense. Who in Soul Society would ever pay that much just for a _kid?_! Forcing himself to slow down, Ikkaku looked for a secluded place to pull the crumpled piece of paper out of his bag, and take a good look at it again. This time, he noticed the name of the institution offering the reward, and his blood froze in his veins. He knew that infamous name - who didn't? It was one of the top-most famous "orphanages" in the whole of Rukongai. Looking at the address listed under the name, Ikkaku realised that the infernal institution was located just a couple of days away from where he had originally found the kid, which made total sense and confirmed to him that the boy mentioned on the notice was indeed the very same boy he had been taking care of those last few months.

His mind reeling fiercely, Ikkaku once again crumpled the piece of paper before burying it deep into the bag, and forcing himself to start walking again. He barely remembered to buy food before leaving town, and it took him quite a while to orient himself and find the right exit to the city, which was a sure indication of just how much out of order his brain was. Night had come by the time he finally started on the road back to the campsite, but for some strange reason, Ikkaku found that each step seemed harder to take than the previous one. One part of his mind was telling him to hurry and get back to the kid quickly, but the rest of his being was dreading seeing the boy again. Ikkaku couldn't even _think_ of the boy's face without seeing the insane reward amount superimposed on it - how would he react when he _saw_ the kid for real again? Even worse: how could he dream of managing to hide his confusion from the ever-paranoid boy? The kid would know that something was wrong, he would know it right away...

Ikkaku's heart was heavy when he finally stepped into the campsite clearing. He still didn't know what to do or say, and an intense fear had lodged itself into his stomach that somehow the boy would just take one look at him, and _know_, and run away. So it was to his very intense relief that he realised that the kid had already gone to sleep under a bush, all rolled up in the blanket. Feeling almost giddy, Ikkaku dropped to his knees next to him, unstrapped the bag from his shoulder, and took his sword out of his belt. He tried to make as little noise as possible, but he still managed to wake the kid up, who suddenly raised himself on an elbow and fixed Ikkaku with wide open eyes. After a couple of seconds, though, recognition came to him, and his face broke into a little smile barely visible in the moonlight, while a sigh of relief escaped his lips. Disentangling himself from the blanket, he offered a good half of it to Ikkaku, before promptly going back to sleep under his own half. Ikkaku remained kneeling for several long minutes, until a great shiver traveling down his back convinced him to join the boy under the warmth of the blanket. He had barely settled himself when he felt the little body come snuggling up to him, while a muttered string of nonsensical words fell from the kid's mouth, both of which confirmed to Ikkaku that the boy was fast asleep. Carefully, Ikkaku wrapped one arm around the boy's thin body, and placed the other under his own head. He closed his eyes, and his overwrought body and brain welcomed the oblivion of sleep. The last thought that crossed his mind before he fell asleep was the boy's name, which had been written on the notice.

Yumichika.


	11. Chapter 10 : Trust and Lies

A/N:

- Tan: yeah, the orphanage is something far more sinister than what its name might lead one to believe. I _thought _I'd left enough clues about its true nature in the previous chapters, but I guess they didn't work out too well... (shuffles uneasily) About burning it down: it wouldn't work. As long as there is demand and funding, those things keep re-inventing themselves (growls in anger at real-life people involved in such human trafficking).

About Rukongai: you've put the finger on my one mega-weakness: I just don't understand all the technicalities of the functioning of Soul Society in general, and Rukongai in particular! You know that map of Seireitei that Ganju drew for himself? That's about my level of understanding of the whole darn thing (blushes furiously). I really REALLY need an Idiot's Guide to Rukongai or something. Anyone knows where I can find that?? Whether it's the matter of districts and population layouts, or the question of what exactly determines just how quickly a soul apparently ages, or the matter of who exactly eats/gets hungry and why and when, or even the stupid question of whether souls can actually reproduce in Soul Society, I'm equally lost on all of those! Somebody help, please?

About Ikkaku: yeah, being around kiddie Yumi calms him a bit, but that's not the only reason. If (hopefully) I get down to writing the whole series I have in mind, you'll see that there are real reasons for present-day!Ikkaku to be quite a bit more violent and unhinged than past!Ikkaku. Still, I agree that my Ikkaku is a tad too tame at times... (sighs)

- v-a: you win :-) ! Want some of Vanessa's cookies? They're great! And I'm sorry I'm making you feel bad for Yumi :-( I'm afraid I have a thing for survivors, so I have an almost sadistic tendency to put all my favourite characters through Hell just to see them come back from it. Sorry about that.

- lelann: death is like life: some things go well, some others... not so well ;-)

- rinda: glad you like it :-) !

- About today's chapter: short and angsty, but absolutely unskippable, from a psychological plot point of view. Much more action in the next chapter (another one of my badly-written fight scenes, sorry), which will also be the last chapter, if you don't count the epilogue. I'm already working on the next installment in the series, though.

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Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.

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Chapter Ten : Trust and Lies

Yumichika lay lazily in a mossy patch of forest ground, bathing in the last not-so-warm rays of the afternoon sun. Ikkaku had gone to town again, so Yumichika was going to have another quiet evening all to himself. He didn't mind that at all, in fact he rather appreciated the peaceful solitude those hours away from Ikkaku provided him with. As much as he had come to enjoy the often silent presence of the bald man, he was still a loner at heart and as such welcomed those opportunities to be entirely on his own, away from everything and everyone. Among other things, those times allowed him to fully retreat into his inner world and to meditate at length on whatever problem happened to be the most pressing one in his life at the moment.

Right now, his foremost topic of thought was Ikkaku's unexplained sudden change of mood. The man was trying to pretend that everything was normal, but Yumichika wasn't blind, he could clearly see that something was deeply disturbing Ikkaku. It had all started ten days ago, when Ikkaku had gone on another fight-and-shopping trip to town. Yumichika had been sleeping when the man had come back, but he'd noticed right away upon waking up the next day that something was off. Ikkaku was no more and no less silent than usual, but it was somehow the _quality_ of his silence that had changed. Yumichika couldn't quite put his finger on what signs had alerted him, but he'd immediately intuitively known that Ikkaku was troubled, very troubled.

Nothing in their routine had changed, and yet at the same time everything had changed. The training sessions, for example, were just not the same anymore. Ikkaku still put as much energy into them, but he didn't seem to enjoy them as much as he used to. Sometimes his manic grin would reappear during a particularly rousing bit of fighting, but overall he just didn't seem to take as much pleasure into sparring as he did before. In fact, it almost seemed at times as though he weren't even focusing on it, as though his mind was occupied with something else.

There was also, of course, the rather worrying fact that for the first time since Yumichika had met him, Ikkaku had actually flat-out _lost_ a fighting tournament. He hadn't explicitely said so and Yumichika hadn't asked, but, well, there simply hadn't been anything to eat that night or the next day.

It wasn't just the lost fight that they had somehow silently agreed not to talk about: it was the whole business that was bothering Ikkaku. The man was not letting on anything, but Yumichika could feel and sometimes even catch Ikkaku looking at him with a scaringly grim expression on his face. Ikkaku had never looked at him like that before, and the change deeply unsettled Yumichika. He couldn't figure out what it meant, and this was putting him on constant edge. And yet at the same time he found himself imitating his mentor's attitude to the letter, pretending not to notice anything, pretending that everything was all right, and refusing to ask questions or voice his worries. They were both skirting the obvious issue, and the uncertainty that was born from this shared avoidance was driving Yumichika crazy with anxiety.

A shiver ran through his body, and he realised that the sun had gone, hiding behind the trees as it fell on the horizon. The evening chill was rising, and with nothing but the memory of a rather light breakfast in his belly, he was starting to feel a bit cold. He got up and went to grab the blanket. As he shook it open, he noticed a ball of paper flying off from it. He instinctively caught it in his hand and uncrumpled it out of curiosity.

His heart fell. His blood froze. The world around him disappeared. All that was left of it was himself and the piece of paper in his hand. He stared at it, and stared at it, for what felt like an eternity. He couldn't think, he couldn't move ; all he could do was stare. He couldn't rip his gaze away from the representation of his own face and the unimaginable amount of money offered for his capture. He could feel himself falling slowly but inexorably down a deep, dark well. He could feel his freedom and his new-found life slipping through his fingers like water. He wanted to retain them, he wanted to grasp at them, but he could feel them evading his clutch - his life was coming to an end, and there was nothing he could do about it...

Or was there? Slowly, a hot feeling awakened in his belly - anger. Pure, raging anger. His hand holding the piece of paper started to shake with it, soon followed by the rest of his body. Hot anger poured over him in large, white waves. How did they _dare_!? After the hell they'd put him through, after he'd finally managed to escape, after he'd found someone who was willing to help him build a new life, _this_ was what he had to deal with?? He'd known they would look for him, of course, but he certainly hadn't expected them to go to such ridiculous lengths. So much money, so far away from the orphanage... Yumichika felt his jaws clench and his hands roll into balls, as his body and mind prepared to fight the odds once again.

But... What _could_ he do? As much and as hard as he thought about it, he could only figure one single alternative. He could "stay put" as Ikkaku would say, stay with the man, and hope that the lure of so much money would not lead to betrayal. Or he could run away again, live on his own, somehow evading people all the time. Strangely, for the first time in his after-life, Yumichika found that his mind and his heart did not agree on the decision to be made. His mind was screaming at him that nobody could be expected to resist the attraction of so much money, that Ikkaku was bound to sell him off sooner or later - maybe he had already? Maybe he would come back tonight with undesirable company? It was possible, so possible, Yumichika knew it. And yet for some unexplainable reason, he couldn't quite bring himself to believe it. It was all plausible, and yet it all seemed unreal. It sounded like a theoretical possibility, not a practical reality. It was something that _could_ happen, but that somehow Yumichika knew was not _going to_ happen.

Confused by the opposite desires that were tugging at his brain, he grabbed the blanket, rolled himself into it, and plopped down under a tree, trying to clear his head and to come to a definite and logical conclusion. But no matter how much he thought things through, no miraculously obvious solution presented itself, and he was left to choose between what he thought might happen, and what he believed was going to happen. This was a first in his life, and he didn't know how to handle it. He tried to make up an escape plan, but the heavy dark cloud that invaded his mind and heart at this idea quickly forced him to give up on that project. And so it was that for the very first time in his entire after-life - or as far as he could remember anyway - , Yumichika decided to ignore the paranoid screaming of his survival instincts, and to deliberately put his trust into another human soul.

He just hoped with every fiber of his being that he would not come to regret it one day.


	12. Chapter 11 : Breaking Free

A/N:

- Lady Zari: thanks for the explanations :-) ! They are much appreciated and very helpful. Cookies?

- As I said yesterday, this is the last chapter (short epilogue excepted) for this particular story, which is supposed to deal only with the (extended) meeting between Yumi and Ikkaku.

- A bit more violence than usual in this chapter, but still well within the parameters of any average Bleach episode (I think).

- Completely off-topic: am I the only one who is utterly confused as to when exactly the new anime arc is supposed to take place O.o ??

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Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach. (I feel stupid repeating this chapter after chapter...)

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Chapter Eleven : Breaking Free

Ikkaku was nervous, very nervous. Either the kid's paranoia had finally infected him too, or they were being followed. The first option was not entirely improbable, considering that he and the boy had been carefully dancing around each other for weeks on end now, so it wouldn't have been completely surprising to Ikkaku if his mind had finally started seeing things that weren't there. Yet, he couldn't chase the feeling that this was the real thing, that they were truly being spied on.

For one, it had all begun while he had been _away_ from the boy: he'd been fighting when he'd noticed a man looking at him. The man wasn't anything special in himself, but Ikkaku could have sworn he'd seen him just a few days before, at his previous fight. He'd dismissed it as a coincidence, until he'd seen the man again, two weeks later in another part of the district. What had worried him even more had been that this time the man had obviously been trying to be unconspicuous: he'd been sitting at a table in a far corner of the room, keeping his head in the shadow of the hood of his cloak. But a drunken fight had erupted at the table next to his, and someone had pulled his hood off, and Ikkaku had had time to see and recognize the man's face out of the corner of his eye, even while dodging his opponent's blow. The man had quickly pulled his hood back on and left the room, but the damage had been done and Ikkaku was now on alert. He'd fought twice again since then, and each time he'd looked for the man, and though he hadn't found him, he hadn't lost his feeling of unease.

For two, as of today, even the boy seemed to realise that they were being followed. He was jumpy and irritable, his eyes kept darting all around him, and he was biting the fingernail on his thumb, something Ikkaku had learned to recognize as a sure sign of distress. Ikkaku even saw him open his mouth a couple of times and then close it and bite his lower lip, as though he were repressing an urge to say or ask something. And when finally Ikkaku suddenly left the road and broke into a run straight through the fields, the boy didn't seem the least bit surprised and followed right away - there was no doubt, he knew what was going on.

They didn't run for long, though, for right after they reached a small wood, a shadow suddenly appeared as if out of thin air in front of them. They skidded to a halt and turned around, only to find more people waiting for them there. Looking forward again, they saw that the original shadow had now been joined by two others. Ikkaku's expert eye quickly gauged the situation. He could count seven people surrounding them. Of those, five seemed to be the thug type, big and strong, two of them armed with heavy wooden clubs and the other three with their fists only. One of the two remaining men was dressed all in black and seemed to be a true fighter: he was carrying a sword, and his whole body language spoke of physical confidence and intelligence. With a jolt, Ikkaku identified him as the man who had been checking on him at the fights. Finally, the last man didn't look like the type to fight in any way: he was short, fat, he was wearing impratical but very expensive-looking clothes, and most of all he seemed very short of breath, as though the little running he'd just had to do had been enough to exhaust him. He was still slightly panting when he started speaking, in an unctuous and falsely friendly voice that gave goosebumps to Ikkaku.

" Yumichika, my boy! It is so good to see you again! "

Ikkaku shot a look at the boy by his side, and was shocked by the expression of sheer hatred that was painted on the little face. The mouth was distorted in a clenched sneer, the eyebrows were furrowed, and there even seemed to be a cold metallic murderous glint in the narrowed purple eyes. As though oblivious to all this, the short fat man continued:

" We've been looking for you, you know. The benevolent patrons have been asking after you. They are wondering where you've gone." The man wagged a finger and gave a false cheery smile, as though lightly scolding the boy. "You _know_ you are their favourite." The smile became cold and cruel and the voice turned into a whisper. "It wasn't nice of you to disappear like that, they won't like it."

Ikkaku could almost physically feel the anger and the hatred seeping out of the boy. Putting a hand on the kid's shoulder, he unsheathed his sword and asked as casually as possible:

" What do you want? "

The man looked at him as though he hadn't noticed him before, plastered his false cheery smile back on his face, and replied in a would-be happy voice:

" I just want to bring my good friend Yumichika here back home of course! "

Ikkaku felt the boy's body shiver under his hand. He squeezed the little shoulder once and replied in the same casual tone as before:

" I don't think that's gonna be possible, 'cause see, the boy doesn't wanna go with ya. "

The man's smile faltered for a second, and there was a distinct threatening edge when he countered:

" Oh, but that doesn't really matter, does it? He's coming back with me, whether he wants to or not, and there is nothing you can do about that. "

Ikkaku sneered:

" Oh, really? "

Without warning, he launched himself at one of the club-wearing thugs. With his sword hand, he cut the man's throat open, and with the other he tugged the stick out of the man's hand. Turning on the spot, he threw the club at the boy, who caught it safely and immediately assumed a defensive stance. Ikkaku then tried to lunge at the short fat man, but found his way blocked by the sword of the man in black. As he began fighting him, he tried to keep his ears open to the sounds of the other battle taking place not far from him. As long as he could hear the bangs of wood on wood, he'd know the boy was still alive, conscious and free...

The man in black was a good sword-fighter, but Ikkaku was fueled by more than adrenaline this time, so the battle was short. Throwing caution to the winds, uncaring about the multiple superficial cuts his risky technique was earning him, Ikkaku launched a series of explosive offensive moves that left him open to the other man's sword, but eventually earned him the victory as the man in black fell off his feet, overcome by the sheer power of Ikkaku's attacks. A swift downward swipe was all it took to leave him lying spread-eagled in the mud, a pool of blood forming around him from the deep gash in his chest.

Barely taking time to register his victory, Ikkaku threw himself into the knot of men surrounding the fighting boy. To his surprise, he realized that the kid was not only holding his own, but had even apparently managed to knock two of the unarmed thugs out, and to somehow break the club of the armed one. Two sword strikes later, the last two remaining thugs were lying on the forest floor, their bodies twitching as life oozed out of them, and Ikkaku was already turning to the last man standing, the short fat man who was stupidly looking at him with a dazed and shocked expression on his face.

Smirking, Ikkaku advanced slowly on the short man, relishing the look of panic that appeared in the piggy eyes. The man took a few steps backward, caught his feet into some low-hanging vines, and fell heavily on his backside. He didn't try to get up again, choosing instead to raise an arm over his head, as though this were enough to ward off the death blow he knew was coming for him. Ikkaku raised his sword, preparing to strike.

" Ikkaku! Wait! "

Startled, Ikkaku whipped around, his arm still raised in the air. He saw the boy come to him slowly, with a grim expression on his face, his eyes fixed upon the face of the cowering man on the floor. For several long moments, the boy just stood there, his wide purple eyes staring at the terrified face. Then he held out his hand, and whispered:

" Ikkaku, can I have your sword, please? "

Ikkaku hesitated. As much as he wanted the kid to know how to fight, killing was another matter entirely. But when the boy turned his head towards him, looked at him with those huge eyes, and he could see all the pain, the anger, the hatred and the determination that were raging in them, he knew he had no right to deny the kid this one wish. Without a word, he handed his sword to the boy, who took it in both hands and lowered its tip to the ground. The purple eyes closed for a minute, and when they re-opened, Ikkaku could once again see the murderous metallic glint in them. The boy raised the sword with both hands high above his head, and brought it swiftly down in one powerful strike, deeply ripping the man's throat and chest open.

Ikkaku waited a few moments, looking silently at the boy who once again had closed his eyes and lowered the sword's tip to the floor, before carefully, almost gently, claiming his sword back. The little hands offered no resistance, letting Ikkaku take the sword out of them without the kid even seemingly noticing. Deciding to give the boy some space to recover, Ikkaku went back to the fallen men a few paces away, checking that the dead ones were truly dead, and sending the few remaining live ones to join their comrades in Hell - or wherever it was that dead people went to when they died again. He knew better than to leave witnesses in such cases.

After checking that the short man was also dead, he went back to the kid, who had by now fallen to his knees and was staring at the space in front of him. Ikkaku hesitated one moment, before kneeling too in front of the boy, who didn't seem to notice him at all. Softly, Ikkaku called out:

" Hey, kid. "

He got no answer whatsoever. He hesitated again, and brought his hand up to the little unseeing face. His fingers brushed lightly against a hollow cheek. The boy's reaction was violent: the purple eyes grew huge and a strangled shriek escaped the livid lips, even as the boy jumped to his feet and pulled away, backwards, from Ikkaku. Instinctively, Ikkaku lunged forward and grabbed the boy's wrists to prevent him from blindly running away in an unknown forest. The boy immediately lashed out, screaming and flailing, and for the first time in months, Ikkaku once again found himself forced to consider going to extreme lengths to regain control. Before he had to resort to such measures, though, his gaze found the kid's eyes, and he saw recognition dawn in them. The boy stopped fighting and yelling, while despair, terror and horror invaded his face. He gasped, and stuttered:

" Ik... Ikka... "

Tears were welling in his eyes, and his whole body started to shake. Ikkaku gently tugged on the wrists he was still holding in his hands, and then released them and grabbed the kid in a tight hug as the boy threw himself against his chest. He let him cry and howl in anguish for many long moments, acutely aware that this was the very first time the boy was openly allowing himself to cry in front of him. Finally, the racking sobs subsided and all that was left of the kid was a thin body shivering in his arms and short gasping breaths tickling his neck. Then a small voice rose from somewhere underneath his chin:

" Ikkaku? "

" Yeah, kid? "

The boy didn't answer. Surprised, Ikkaku looked down and repeated:

" Kid? "

The boy raised his head and looked at Ikkaku with rather red and puffy eyes and a very solemn air:

" Call me Yumichika... Will you? "

Ikkaku started.

" Er, sure... Yumichika. "

A fleeting smile appeared on the kid's lips, before he buried his face in the man's neck again.

" And Ikkaku? "

" Hmm? "

" Thank you. "

Ikkaku squirmed and shrugged.

" Tch. I wasn't going to let them take you ba- "

A shuffling move under his chin stopped him. The kid was shaking his head.

" No, not for that. Well, for that too, yes, but... "

He hesitated, and when he spoke, he did it so quietly that Ikkaku had to strain his ears to hear him:

" I feel safe with you. "


	13. Epilogue : Always

Disclaimer: I still don't own Bleach...

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Epilogue : Always

Yumichika woke and sat up abruptly. His heart was pounding, his blood was rushing in his ears, he was shaking all over, and he was covered in cold sweat. He swore quietly. Stupid nightmares! Stupid Arrancars. Stupid Ikkaku who wouldn't use his bankai where other shinigamis could see it...

Rubbing his eyes and focusing his mind, Yumichika lay back down and forced himself to take slow, deep breaths and to regain control of his wildly fluctuating reiatsu before he managed to wake anyone else up in the Division. The tight knot of anxiety in the pit of his stomach, though, simply wouldn't go away, no matter how hard he tried to relax his entire body. Stupid, ugly war... Unbidden, unwanted, the images of that one particular night started flashing in his head again. Ikkaku had come so close to dying that day - he would have died for sure if he hadn't decided to go bankai after all... What if...?

With an irritated sigh, Yumichika opened his eyes again and sat up on the edge of his bed. This was pointless. This was ugly. This wasn't getting him anywhere. He had to calm down, he had to go back to sleep. Another round of insomnia was definitely not what he needed right now. But how... ? He could already feel the tension knots forming between his shoulder blades, and he knew that the memories were still lurking around in his head, just waiting for him to close his eyes again. He sighed ; it looked like he wasn't going to pack any more sleep tonight...

That's when he felt it, slow and discreet at first, but growing stronger and bolder with each passing moment. The familiar sensation was soft as feathers, and yet strong as running water, pressing gently but firmly against his body and mind. A small part of him felt ashamed when he realized that he had woken Ikkaku up after all, but the embarrassment didn't last as it was dissolved by the all-encompassing force of Ikkaku's reiatsu engulfing him. Gratefully, he let the gentle but mighty waves run through him, washing away the anxiety, the fear, the tension.

He closed his eyes again and lay back down, knowing that this time his mind would be at peace, and he would manage to go back to sleep serenely, secure in the knowledge that Ikkaku was watching over him, as always.


End file.
